First Line(s): Its my favorite thing ever to have all the people I love in one place at the same time.

Even though I was a little disappointed in Jet, I couldn’t wait to dive into Rome by Jay Crownover. We first meet Rome in Rule as he is Rule’s older brother and until the big secret in that book comes out he is the most steady and stable of all the characters in this series. Rome is an ex-marine and part of how he lost his way is the after effects of events in Afghanistan that left him injured and those under his command dead. He is lost, suffering from PTSD, and trying to deal with family secrets and so is a bit volatile and just makes your heart ache for him. His family know how he was before and believe that if they just let things slide that he’ll find his way again. Cora and Brite however continually call him on his crap with mixed results.

Cora is also a character we first meet at the start of the series and if the guys in the previous books could be called Bad Boys then she is the equivalent of the Bad Girl. She’s opinionated and tattooed and refuses to take crap from anyone. She’s almost a little too sharp around the edges at times but once you learn her backstory you can understand where she is coming from and how she is the way she is. And as such you can understand her better though I may not always agree with how she deals with it all. Although, with what Rome is dealing with he needs someone who isn’t afraid to be blunt and abrasive which is something that Cora can do well.

As with Rule and Jet, I read Rome in just a few hours. Once I started I couldn’t put it down and I needed to know what would happen next with not just with the central characters but with the secondary ones as well. One thing that I’ve enjoyed with the Marked men series is how Jay Crownover keeps all of her characters around with each successive story. They don’t just disappear or are barely mentioned but all have an integral part in the story to play. Although Nash does have a bigger part in this one than the others and a big part of that is probably because his story is the one that follows this.

I liked Rome, a lot. I liked his and Cora’s chemistry and I loved their story. I liked how life threw them both a curveball and how they managed to deal with it. This one was fast paced and filled with lots of heart-achy feel good feels. If you are thinking of trying New Adult then you should really check out the Marked Men series. Great writing, good stories, and odd names aside, lots of good romancy emotions.